Council member arrested for DWI

A Princeton City Council member was arrested early Friday, Oct. 4, for suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Victoria A. Hallin, 50, of Princeton, was taken into custody by Elk River Police shortly after 5:30 a.m. Oct. 4.

Hallin’s booking photo

Authorities received a complaint that a vehicle was crossing the center line and fog line in the area of Highway 101 and County 39 in Otsego, just south of Elk River and the Mississippi River.

The vehicle traveled north into Elk River and was located by Elk River Police on Highway 169 near Main Street.

An Elk River Police officer followed the vehicle and observed that it crossed the center line and the fog line several times, according to a Elk River Police Department report.

The officer attempted to stop the vehicle on Highway 169 north of 193rd Avenue. The vehicle didn’t stop, resulting in the officer activating his squad car’s siren. The driver of the vehicle, later identified as Hallin, eventually pulled over about a half mile to the north, the report states.

When the officer confronted Hallin, he “detected an odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from the driver’s breath,” the report states.

An investigation lead to Hallin being arrested for suspicion of DWI. Hallin requested a blood test and was taken by the officer to Center Care Health in Monticello. She was then booked into Sherburne County Jail, where she requested a second blood test.

The results of the blood test had not been received by the Elk River Police Department when this issue of the Union-Eagle went to press. Hallin told the Union-Eagle that she also submitted to an independent blood test and the results came in at below the legal limit for driving while intoxicated.

Hallin is in her 11th year as a Princeton councilor and was first elected to office in 2002. She was most recently re-elected in the 2012 election when she ran unopposed.